Did You Ever Have That Feeling...

It has been a wild week here in my world, what about you? I just have the feeling that things are about to happen, and that God is starting to open doors.

The articles that I wrote have started appearing in the Alabama Baptist, and to be honest, I am very surprised that they are actually running them. My hat is off to Dr. Bob Terry for having the courage to address this topic. He told me that he was scared to run them, but he knew that it needed to be done.

As a result of those running, I have been interviewed by a local news station, two men have contacted me about how we may work together in the fight to help people break free from sex and porn addiction, and an author came to interview me for a chapter in her upcoming book.

The TV interview was awkward, but what can you expect? Ken Lass, the reporter, does free lance work for the local NBC affiliate here in Birmingham. Because he's a freelancer, he doesn't have a videographer - why does that matter you ask? It means he doesn't have lighting and that means that we had to do it outside. Why does that matter you ask? Because it was 107 degrees outside and I was facing the sun. Nice.

He was very nice and apologized profuseley, and it was no picnic for him either. I laughed and said, "No this is great, really. A sweaty guy constantly squinting his eyes talking about porn - what could be better, right? Could you give me a trench coat to complete the picture?"

We had a nice time and the story aired last night, and it will run two more times tomorrow. Please pray that people learn that they can get help, and that God is glorified.

I am excited about the new contacts with others involved in the fight to free those in the grip of pornography. One is from Tuscaloosa, and the other is local. Please pray for discernment and for God's will to be clear in these meetings.

My favorite meeting of the week was actually with Denise George. She has written over thirty books and hundreds of articles, and is currently working on a new project for Zondervan on the topic of what pastors wish church members knew. She saw the article on porn and was surprised to see how many pastors secretly struggle. She then figured that she needed to include a chapter about it in this new book.

I know Denise, so at least it was not horribly awkward talking about porn with her. She's heard me speak on it before, so that made things much easier than they could have been, right? As we talked, she began to get very excited about the topic, and began to encourage me to write a book.

Here's how the conversation went, "Tal, you need to write a book on this. Have you put anything together on this?" "Ummm, I would love to write a book on this, but don't know how - so no I have not put anything together on this as of yet." She then asked, "Have you written a proposal yet?" "Ummm, no I don't know how to do that either." "Well," she said, "have you outlined the book yet?" "I haven't really gotten past the whole "I don't know how to thing" to have outlined anything."

Then she started asking questions, and before I knew it, we had outlined a project. Then she went beyond that to tell me that she knew of a couple of publishers that would probably take it in a minute, and if I would like, she would be happy to take my story and a proposal to her agent and ask him to shop it. Let's just say, I'm really excited about that.

So, I'll be working hard on that here shortly, and in October I'm doing two events with Ruth Graham. Cafe 1520 should open up soon, and Tapestry is in its' new home. What is God up to? I'm not real sure, but it is exciting!

Just pray that I'll keep my hands off of it.